Resource Library

Resources from 2016

December

One of the great actors of the last generation that many of you will know is Robert Redford. He was one of those heart-throbs. Everybody loved him. And when he was at the peak of his success, he was noticed by a woman in a hotel lobby – and he was one of those guys who was voted “Best Looking Man Alive” like twenty-six times or something like that –...

Richard Sibbes was a 16th -century writer and he wrote a little book called, The Bruised Reed. And in it, he unpacks Isaiah chapter 42 verse 3, “A bruised reed he will not break.” And in that little book, Sibbes writes that “God’s children are bruised reeds, before their conversion and many times after. For usually God empties men of themselves and makes them nothing before He will use...

Well, I do hope you’re having a wonderful Christmas so far. I’m very glad you’re with us this Lord’s Day Morning to celebrate the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and to worship together with us. As you will know, if you have been with us in the month of December, in the weeks that have led up to Christmas we have been considering the teaching...

Probably the great symbol of Christmas is the tree. I love a good Christmas tree, don’t you? All decorated, sparkling with lights, covered in ornaments; those ornaments, many of them perhaps in your home, tell a story of some significance to your family. Well, Isaiah suggests a different Christmas symbol for us in the opening verse of chapter 11. Not a Christmas tree, but the stump of a...

I remember as a fairly new believer attending the parish church in the village on the outskirts of Glasgow where I grew up for our midnight service one Christmas Eve. It has been a cold and gloomy night as I walked down the street from my family home to the church. We spent the next happy hour singing the praise of God, singing carols by candlelight, praising Him...

We all have those favorite Christmas movies. One of the favorites around the Fluhrer household is Elf, about the story of Buddy the Elf who comes to our world. And there’s this great scene in the movie where he’s this real elf from the North Pole and he comes across a department store Santa, which always scare kids, and this one’s no exception. And he thinks it’s the real...

If you’ve got your Bibles, please turn to John chapter 1. That will be the passage we’re studying this morning, John 1:1. I apologize I don’t have the pew page number for you on that, but John 1:1; the fourth gospel of the New Testament. Before we hear God’s Word, let’s go to the Lord in prayer.

As you’re being seated, if you would take your Bibles and open up to the book of James, we’re in James chapter 2 this evening. We’ll consider our study of this wonderful New Testament book over the coming months. You’ll find our passage on page 1012 if you’re using a pew Bible. James 2:8-13. If you’re visiting, again, we’re glad you’re here. Thanks for being here...

I wonder if you’ve put up your Christmas tree yet. That was my duty yesterday. I was out in the rain choosing a tree; I got cold and wet. There were pine needles in my hair and resin on my elbows. And then there was the sanctifying business of wrestling the thing through the front door into the stand without denuding the tree of every needle that it...

November

Believe it or not, this morning is the first Sunday in Advent. It comes, it seems every year a little faster. Don’t you think? The Christmas season and all the sentimentality and the fun and the gifts and the Christmas present buying and all the trappings that go along with it. We want to try to make the most of the cultural opportunity afforded by the...

They are the kind of questions children like to ask from the back seat on long journeys, aren’t they? “Where are we going? When will we get there? Who’s going to be there?” Actually, they’re enormously important questions to get answers to, especially when it comes to matters of eternity. As I said a moment ago, the final chapter of the book of Revelation answers those three questions...

In 1968, at the Olympic Games in Mexico City, the final event was the marathon. There was an Ethiopian runner who had entered into the stadium. He was the first one to enter there and he finished the track and ran across the finish line and won the race. But about an hour behind him, there was a man by the name of John Stephen Akhwari of Tanzania...

My wife, Wendy, recently pointed me to an interview done several years ago with now the late American author, Pat Conroy. In this interview, he was telling the story of one of the times when one of his books had become a best-selling book. It had sold over 5 million copies and Hollywood came to him and said, “We’d like to make a movie out of your book.”...